Thando Mgqolozana written film Inxeba gets Oscar nomination

Inxeba (The Wound), co-written by Thando Mgqolozana, is one of the nine films shortlisted for the 90th Academy Awards Foreign Language Film category.

It’s been a good year for Thando Mgqolozana the South African author of A Man Who is Not A Man (2009), Hear Me Alone (2011) (our review) and Unimportance (2014) (our review). The author is also the founder of the Abantu Book Festival which is quickly becoming the most literary event in the Southern African region.

He has other skills of course. He was one of the writers of Inxeba (The Wound) which we spoke about making its debut on South African soil in July alongside Malusi Bengu and John Trengove . The critically acclaimed drama Inxeba is an exploration of tradition and sexuality set amid the Xhosa rights of passage into manhood.

The movie has been well received getting awards galore including the Best Foreign Language Film of 2017 by the African American Film Critics Association. It also bagged the Best Film at the International Queer & Migrant Film Festival and the Best First Feature Award at BFI London Film Festival. It has also won the Outfest International Grand Jury Prize in Los Angeles, won Best Film and Best Actor at Cinema Jove, the Valencia International Film Festival.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubSlj-G4P6I

The movie is now in the big leagues as it is among the nine films shortlisted for the 90th Academy Awards Foreign Language Film category. We get to know on March 4 whether there is going to be yet another African writer associated with an Oscar win. Enough time to do some research on how many African writers have been this close to winning an Oscar.